Google Search

Liverpool Look Set to Complete £18m Deal to Sign Pair In Early January

Liverpool are on course to meet Brendan Rodgers’ request for early January signings following talks over an £18m outlay on Daniel Sturridge and Tom Ince.

The Liverpool manager has operated with only one fit striker – Luis Suárez – for most of his debut season at Anfield, due to injury to Fabio Borini and a calamitous end to the last transfer window. The club are anxious to address their summer failings at the earliest opportunity and have made further progress on Rodgers’ chief targets after negotiations with Chelsea and Blackpool.

Sturridge, who is expected to cost £12m and is keen on a move to Merseyside, could have joined Liverpool on transfer deadline day but Rodgers was reluctant to pursue a permanent deal – he favoured an initial loan move.

The signs are good that Liverpool will complete moves for this pair, with both players seemingly in protracted negotiations about possible moves from their respective clubs.

The former Man City man performed well in the first half of last term where former boss Andre Villas-Boas was willing to give the young attacker a chance to prove himself, albeit in his less preferred role out wide. Under Roberto Di Matteo he found himself warming the bench and there is no reason to suggest life will be any different under Rafa Benitez.

Lack of first team football has seen Sturridge fall out of Roy Hodgson’s England plans and this could further force the Birmingham born forward to consider his future.

Brendan Rodgers urgently needs to bring in alternative attacking options and the relationship the Northern Irishman retains with the club he served as youth and reserve team boss could well aid such a move and £12m would be a very fair price in today’s transfer market for a player of Sturridge’s obvious talent.

Any move by the Anfield side to land Tom Ince from Blackpool will be offset by a 35% sell-on clause that Liverpool secured on the terms of his departure to Bloomfield Road.

Attempts to snap up Ince will be aided by the fact that Tangerines boss have lost Ian Holloway to Crystal Palace. The young winger has been in fine form this season, scoring 13 and providing eight assists despite the fact his Bloomfield Road side sit in mid-table.